Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist, playwright and journalist who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. Naomi has written for the Jerusalem Post and other publications in Israel and abroad, as well as to her mailing list, about Israel and Jewish issues.

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Naomi's tenth novel The Devil in Jerusalem has been chosen by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as the number one Jewish book of the season.
The story - inspired by true events - is a chilling tale of the paths that so easily lead us astray, and the darkness within us all.
Click the book’s cover to learn more.

Naomi has published ten internationally best-selling novels, and is the author of a hit play (Women's Minyan) that has been performed more than 500 times in Israel's National Theatre (Habimah) as well as in the United States and Argentina.
An Orthodox woman, feminist and iconoclast, Naomi is a tireless advocate for women's rights in Israel, waging a relentless campaign against domestic abuse and bias in rabbinical courts, as well as a successful Supreme Court case against gender segregation on Israeli buses.
With her tenth novel, The Devil in Jerusalem, Naomi continues her ground-breaking exploration of women in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world she began in 1989 with Jephte's Daughter, followed by Sotah and The Sacrifice of Tamar.
Naomi is a sought-after lecturer all over the world. If your group is interested in hosting Naomi, please click here.

May 2017 – The Polish translation of Devil in Jerusalem is published as Nic Nie Mów.

April 2017 – Naomi speaks about her books at the Ivan M. Stettenham Library at the Streicker Centre in New York City.

March 2017 – Naomi tours the Paris region to speak about her new book Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss.

January 2017 – Naomi is interviewed by Valérie Abécasis on French Channel 24‘s Culture program. The interview (in French) begins at the 4:00 minute mark.

December 2016 – Les Soeurs Weiss, the French translation of The Sisters Weiss, is published.

7 October 2014 –
Naomi’s ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published in paperback. It’s the story of two sisters from an ultra-Orthodox family in 1950s Brooklyn who take very different paths, and then find their lives unexpectedly intersecting again forty years later. To order the book from Amazon, click the book cover above.

December 2013 - Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about her struggle against the haredi war on women in Israel.
Watch an interview (in French) with Naomi about Le Serment.
December 2013 - Naomi visited Île-de-France to promote her new book Le serment (the French translation of The Covenant).

15 March 2012 - Sotah was published in Italian as L'amora proibito. Read a
review (in Italian).March 2012 - Jephte's Daughter was published in an Italian paperback edition, as Una moglie a Gerusalemme.October 2011 - The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was published in French as Le Fantôme de Dona Gracia Mendes.
Read a
review (in French).October 2011 - The Tenth Song was published in paperback.
May 2011 - Four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh directed a staged reading of Women's Minyan at New York's Westside Theater. The reading was produced by One Circle Productions, in partnership with Safe Horizon.

November 2013 - The Covenant was published in French as Le serment.
November 2013 - Watch an interview with Naomi by Sharon Mor of Shaulina Productions about Naomi's new book The Sisters Weiss in Hebrew or in English.
6 November 2013 - Israel's Supreme Court reversed the District Court's decision against Naomi in the Sarah Shapiro case and ordered Shapiro to return the money she was awarded. Naomi agreed that the money be donated to charity.
October-November 2013 - Naomi toured the US, visiting twelve US cities and speaking about her new book, The Sisters Weiss.
October 2013 - Naomi's ninth novel, The Sisters Weiss, was published. Read an article about it in the San Diego Jewish World.
August 2013 - Chains Around the Grass was published in an Amazon Kindle edition. July 2013 - An interview with Naomi about her trips to Spain to research her best-selling The Ghost of Hannah Mendes was featured in Jewish Travel.
December 2012 - Naomi's play Women's Minyan was performed by the West Boca Theatre Company at the Levis JCC in Boca Raton, Florida.
November 2012 - Naomi visited Île-de-France speaking about her books.
5 November 2012 - Naomi spoke at the Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue in London, England.

This Is What You Are Really Telling Us

by Naomi Ragen on August 1st, 2014

By supporting Hamas, you are supporting the use of Palestinians as human shields, the use of Palestinian children to dig terror tunnels in which 160 have died, and the summary execution of Palestinians by Hamas thugs whenever they open their mouths to protest the use of their homes, school, mosques, or hospitals as weapons caches and missile launching sites.

I’m not sure the people who need to hear this will ever hear it, but I want my conscience to be clear that I said it to them.

Dear Human Rights Activist, Leftist Liberal, Crying-for-the-poor-children, Israel-hating, Hamas-forgiving, marcher, celebrity, news anchor, journalist, writer, media star, politician, head of state. We have seen you
marching along the streets of Europe, America, and the Middle East with your signs and kafias and Palestinian flags. We have heard you screaming to whoever will listen that Jews and Israelis are murderers, war criminals, and baby killers.

You think you are telling us who we are. But actually, you are telling us who you are.

You are telling us that you are ignorant.

That you don’t understand that Hamas is a terror organization that took over a territory that Israel removed all its settlers from a decade ago and with good will turned over to the Palestinians, and that in return the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, a terror organization, to rule them, and that Hamas has been logging bombs at Israeli civilians trying to kill them ever since.

You are telling us you don’t really care about Palestinians or their children.

Because by supporting Hamas, you are supporting the use of Palestinians as human shields, the use of Palestinian children to dig terror tunnels in which 160 have died, and the summary execution of Palestinians by Hamas thugs whenever they open their mouths to protest the use of their homes, school, mosques, or hospitals as weapons caches and missile launching sites.

You are telling us that you are in favor of genocide.

Anyone who does not support Israel in this just war against Hamas, who is a genocidal terrorist organization that clearly says in their charter they want to destroy all Jews, is in fact in favor of genocide. You are telling us that you not only agree with the idea, but the practice, as Hamas is now attempting (without much success, thank God) by bombing Israelis and attempting mass murders and kidnappings through countless underground
tunnels created only for that purpose. You are telling us you don’t think Israelis have a right to live and defend their children by fighting back.

You are telling us you want us dead.

You are telling us that you hate Jews, not just Israelis.

Because otherwise, why would you march along, support, and agree with people who beat up Jews, shoot Jewish children, destroy synagogues, and smash Jewish businesses all over the world, just like the Nazis?

You are telling us that you are a racist and a hater.

Just one more of those evil, ignorant, bigoted, small-minded people who hate people they have never met because of their race and religion.

You are telling us you are ill-informed, uneducated and/or too stupid or too lazy to read history books.

Because by taking up the stance of the Nazis without even understanding in whose footsteps you are following, you are revealing you don’t know where those footsteps led, and the millions and millions of people like ourselves who died because of it.

But most of all, you are showing God who you are and the evil that is in your heart.

For that I pity you. Because we Jews believe that God is compassionate and forgiving. But we also believe that if people repeat the same evils as their forefathers, then God’s compassion ends for them, and the time for punishment begins.

You are not the first ignorant, bigoted, racist, hateful people to stand against the Jews. But you just might be the last. By joining your voice and your body with those who hate justice, who love violence, and who follow in the footsteps of the Jew-haters throughout history, you are singling yourself out for the punishment that befalls all
such people in history sooner or later. Check your history books on that one. Every people who hated Jews eventually became extinct. The Jews survived.

Looking forward to your next march, your next petition, and your next newscast to see who you are. We already know what you are.

Emes … We are all being backed into the corner…. Facing undiluted Evil with daily threats of destruction from our so-called democratic friends …only our G-d will continue to protect us and avenge us and our people – Am Echod….soon.

Your words are well spoken – and offer a potent antidote to the poisons of our pseudo intellectuals.

Naomi It’s reassuring to hear that someone is speaking out against those who are constantly trying to create a spirit of contention and unjustified hate against the Jews. Hasn’t this old world had enough war and strife yet to finally make us want to sit down, shake hands and turn our bloody weapons into plow-shares???

What Maurice is referring to – or whom specifically he is referring to – is a small group of South African Jews, who have called themselves “South Africans of Jewish origin”, and publicly decried what Israel is doing, basically supporting the Palestinians. They have been dubbed “the South African Jewish Anti-Semites”.

Bless you Naomi. I can’t say it any better than the three previous repliers. Whenever I receive a Naomi Ragen newsletter I cannot wait to open it up and read it. Your last few newsletters have been the greatest of the great. I echo Larry above in saying you are putting on paper so eloquently what I am feeling. Unlike Larry I am a Jew and I am so proud of Israel and so proud of you Naomi.

Dear Naomi,
I just recently discovered your writings and after reading several of your recent posts I immediately signed up for your newsletter. I am amazed at your ability to so articulately say exactly what I feel. I am not a Jew, but I have great love and admiration for the Jewish People and especially for those living under constant threat in Israel. I have lived in Europe and the Middle East and I know first hand the Muslim philosophy regarding Jews. I am so sorry, that even today in 2014, you and your people are so persecuted and I am ashamed that we Americans elected a Muslim sympathizer (twice) to lead our country. And I firmly believe that having a person in the White House that cozies up with terrorists, and shuns Israel is one of the main reasons that the terrorists feel emboldened to do what they are doing right now. I pray that you, your fellow Isreali’s and your government remain strong and committed long enough to survive this. I only hope that we can elect someone next time that will repair the damaged relationship between our countries and together we can eliminate these filthy dogs whose current goal in life is to annihilate the Jews. But, we should all remember that this is only their first goal, from there, their stated mission is to annihilate all non-muslims.
Best wishes and stay safe,
Larry LaMay